Trek Bars

Great Harvest brings their goods to the farmer's market and I had the pleasure of trying. It was good. So-So actually. And for $2.50 a square they really weren't worth it.

But I'm a clever girl. Where there is a will, there is a way.  I found this recipe on another blog and tried it.
It has a peanut butter taste to it, but its really not too bad. I havne't tried it with other nut butters, but I don't see why you could use almond butter or anything else.

They seem like a good snack that could hold you over for a while.

Amy's Granola

Doh! Kerri beat me to it. Oh well, there's lots of great granola recipes out there. This is the one we use in our house. Just be aware, its not sweet. But that's because it uses Brown Rice Syrup instead of honey and brown sugar. Its a very forgiving recipe, so you can vary it as much as you like. My kids like it with coconut flakes and chocolate chips. Its an easy recipe to make with your kids too - lots of dumping stuff into the bowl. And best of all, no cooking involved. Just bakes for 30 mins.

Find Brown Rice Syrup in the Gluten-Free section at Bloom or at Whole Foods. Lundgren Farms is the only brand I've seen.

4 C oats (I use old fashioned)
1/2 C wheat germ
1 C chopped nuts
1 C sunflower seeds
1/2 C brown rice syrup
3/4 C veggie oil
1 T vanilla
1 T cinnamon
1/2 t salt
1 C raisins or other dried fruit

Combine all ingredients except raisins. Mix well and spread on a shallow baking sheet (a large jelly roll pan is perfect). Bake at 300 for 30 minutes, gently flipping the granola every 10 minutes. Add the dried fruit when the mixture is done baking and allow to cool in the pan.

Once cool, use a flipper to transfer the granola to a large storage bowl, being careful not to break it up too much. You want large chunks. It should keep for about 2 weeks.

Variations:
1) Add 1 C sweetened coconut and 1 C chocolate chips (omit the raisins)
2) Use walnuts, pumpkin seeds and chopped dates
3) Add flax seeds, pecans or slivered almonds and dried chopped dried apricots.

Homemade Granola Bars

I found this on the web a while ago. The munchkins love it. I've tried to fiddle with the recipe to make variations to reduce the sugar or create other flavors, but they results were either too dry or too soggy and they didn't hold their shape. Sorry, I can't find the original link and I can't figure out how to post pics to the blog. But this is a good one to pack and take for lunches or snacks on the go. I hope you like it.

2 C Oats
3/4 C wheat germ
3/4 C sunflower seeds
1 C nuts (chopped small)
2/3 C brown sugar
1/2 C honey
4 T vegetable oil
2 t vanilla extract
1/2 t kosher salt
approx 8 oz dried fruit

Preaheat oven to 400. Combine oats, nuts, wheat germ, seeds in a jelly roll pan and toast for 10-12 minutes, stirring every few minutes so they don't get burned. Meanwhile prepare a glass baking dish or jelly roll pan (about 11x13) by lining it with waxed paper and spraying with nonstick spray.

Put the brown sugar, honey, oil, vanilla and salt into a saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly. In a large bowl, combine the dry and wet ingredients, and the dried fruit. Mix everything really well, you want to make sure the glue gets all over everything.

Dump the mixture out into the prepared pan and spread as evenly as you can. Next, use a piece of waxed paper to press the mixture. Press REALLY HARD all over the granola. You want to make sure your bars don't fall apart when you cut them. Allow to cool completely (2-3 hours).

Turn the bars out onto a cutting board, peel the waxed paper off and pressing down with a large chef's knife, cut into whatever size bars you'd like.